Exercises 1.

A learner of English as a second language has the following pronunciations (note

that [ʃ] is the symbol for the first sound in ship, and [ð] for the first sound in the):

that[dat] dog[dɒg] head[hεd] leather[lεðə] leader [liːðə]

sing[ʃɪŋ] sat[sat] loss[lɒs] fish[fɪʃ] miss[mɪʃ]

push[pus]

How might you explain these non-native pronunciations?

Because our native phoneme system tends to get in the way when we try to learn other
languages. It is perhaps unsurprising that we should find it difficult at first to produce sounds
which do not figure at all in our first language. However, it is just as difficult, and sometimes
worse, to learn sounds which are phonemically contrastive in the language we are learning,
but allophones of a single phoneme in our native system.

How do you think this learner would pronounce the bold-faced consonants in

Daddy= (dadi),

Either= (eider)

Loathe= (loader)

“Ship= (ʃip)

Pass= (pas)

Dish= (diʃ)

Usher= (uʃer)
2. Do the following sounds contrast in English? Find minimal pairs to support your hypothesis,
ideally for initial, medial and final position in the word. Where minimal pairs for all positions do
not seem to be available, write a short statement of where the sound in question can and
cannot be found. [m n ŋ p b t d k g l r]

Minimal pairs Initial Medial Final

[m] Moon Beam Boom
[n] Noon bean Boon
[ng] Thing Fang ding
[ŋ] Thin fan din
[b] Big staple cab
[p] Pig stable Cap
[t] Tense water Hat
[d] dance bader had
[k] Cold Baking frock
[g] gold begging frog
[r] Right arrive Dare
[l] Light Alive Dale

3. From the second document, “Natural Language Processing &

Applications Phones and Phonemes” please answer questions 1 and 2 from page 10.
Don’t feel you need to tackle all of these! I suggest as a minimum you try (1) – (5) and a
selection of the others. The object is to reinforce your understanding of the concepts:
phoneme, allophone and phonological rule.

1. How many phonemes are there in (a) Keith (b) coughs?

(a) Keith

ˈk/i/θ = it has tree phonemes

(b) coughs
ˈk/ ɒ /f/s =it has four phonemes

What are they in the IPA?

They are symbols which objective is to represent the sounds, at the same way these one
represents the phonetic alphabet.
 In each case try to demonstrate the correctness of your answer by finding words differing
by only one of the phonemes you have identified.
- Keith ˈk/i/θ = smith/ˈsmɪθ
- Coughs ˈk/ ɒ /f/s = trough tr/ɒ/f

2. You are NOT expected to know the IPA symbols; the table given in the Appendix will be
provided if and when necessary.
However, it is useful to have some practice in using them. Study the following phonetic
transcription of a verse of Lewis Carroll’s poem The Walrus and the Carpenter. The
transcription corresponds to my ‘careful’ pronunciation. Write down the normal English
spelling. If your pronunciation differs from mine, write down an amended transcription in
the IPA.

the time has come, the walrus said,

      to talk of many things:
of shoes and ships and sealing wax
      of cabbages and kings
and why the sea is boiling hot
      and whether pigs have wings.

whether =ˈweð.ɚ
hot = hɑːt